Once upon a time, my grandfather called all his grandchildren to visit him. We left our playground to grace him our presence. He settled us all inside his nipa hut. Inside the nipa hut were ripe cacao fruits placed at the center of the floor that was made of bamboos. These fruits were the first harvest he ever had from his cacao trees. He then instructed us all to open the fruit and chew all the seeds. He told us not to swallow the seeds and put it instead in a basket nearby. As children we were all happy and excited with the task. We cheerfully chewed every seed just like we were feasting candies. They were very sweet, and we looked at each other realizing how lucky we were at that moment.
Looking back, I realized that it was my very first lesson of production management. At that moment, we were helping our grandfather processing his cacao seeds and turning it into dark chocolate. Unfortunately, that was the first and the last at the same time. My grandfather told us that the dark chocolate did not taste good because of the quality of the cacao he had. He even cut some of the cacao trees as they were situated near the mango trees. A few cacao trees were left, and they continue to bear cacao fruits to the enjoyment of all his grandchildren. While writing this reflection paper, a single cacao tree is still standing at my side, reminding me of that funny past.
I consider myself to have grown up in the farm, even if I did not experience the hard labor of tilling the soil and propagating the plants. My grandfather is a farmer. He is a tenant of a vast lands located nearby. To me, he was the best on his craft. He has a tradition and he tried to teach us all the techniques in farming. These techniques are about using the tides, the sun and the moon in determining the timing. He also has secrets on how to have bountiful harvests. Unfortunately, no one of us turned to a farmer. The reason could be because he did not own the lands that he was working on, and our parents have send us to school giving us more opportunities outside the farm.
I was very young when my grandfather retired from farming. I maybe around 5 to 6 years old during his last days of farming. But I can still remember how we use to accompany our grandmother when she brought lunch to the farm. How I follow her from the moment she gathers banana leaves, hang them up over the fire, wiped it with a white cloth, wrapped the cooked corn inside the banana leaf and put it inside the basket. She did they same for the dried fish, “ginamos” and all others. When we arrived the farm, my grandfather is usually alone. But sometimes, he is talking to another farmer working the land nearby. Gathering some banana leaves again, our grandmother will place all the food on a shade nearby. Oh, how I love the feeling of eating while sitting on the ground somewhere in a meadow. My grandparents were having a picnic everyday throughout their marriage life. I still envy them for it, right at this moment. That’s the most romantic scene I’ve ever seen. And I know for sure that our presence added some spices to that daily routine.
My happiest memories are during harvest season. For it was the only moment where they allowed me to join them in the farm. There are also plenty of people joining this activity. Harvesting corn is the best experience. It is where we, the grandchildren compete on who could get first at the end of the rows of the corn. At first, we each choose a row and then at the count of three we all start the harvest by taking out the fruit from its stem and putting it at the foot of the corn plant. The elders will pick it up later. The one who can get through first will have all the glory of bragging how he or she was over to overtake everyone on the field.
There were also times, that our neighbors will stop us children from playing and request us to join them in their harvesting activities. We gladly participate and how proud we are after, when we were able to bring home our shares of the harvested crops and present it to our mother. The only time our mother was not happy about is when we bring home some mongo. I can still remember how devastated she was when she realized that we help in harvesting mongo. True to her word, my brother and I were not able to sleep that night. We have been itching all night long and we both turned red as rashes covered as everywhere.
Growing up and being able to roam around our locality made me see the untilled lands almost everywhere. This has made me sad and I started questioning why and how come no one is tilling lands anymore. My brother, who had been very patient on my noisiness, told me that the growing furniture business in Mandaue City, had attracted a lot of our neighbors to work on their factories. The young generations find it better than farming. They were able to get cash every week which was not the case if they stayed in the farm. Their parents were old and not able to tend their lands anymore. I do not like the idea because what will happen to our food supply if there were no people left to continue the farming. But then, what can a child like me can do?
Later, I came to realize that farming is no longer doable in our locality. Seeing the size of the corn that was harvested by my aunt when she tried to plant a corn on a small lot we inherited from our grandfather made me understand why there is a need for our neighbors to explore outside the farming industry. A harvest like that can never be enough even for a small family. I am not sure how it had happened. The only thing that I am assure about is that we need to help mother earth recover. I supported tree, mangrove and even coffee planting everywhere in Cebu. I participated earth hour and deliver my third and last toastmaster piece about ecotourism. But did I make a difference? Clearly, the answer is big No.
The visit we had last Saturday, April 9, 2018 to Sergio’s Farm in Maloray, Dalaguete is an eye opener on my part. The short talk we had with Eng. Fulgencio Revalde brought me back to the love of farming that I used to have. Yes, I did forget about it in the long run. Life has changed so match after that childhood. I have been so engrossed with work and my desire to travel that I become blind to these agricultural problems that we had in our locality. Slowly, farms have been turned into commercial or residential areas and vegetables that were normally gathered in our backyard for free now cost us a lot. This should have been an alarming transformation but are we alarmed? Then answer is we do not care anymore.
The engineer is a good model of a famous saying that goes, “Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan”. I admire him for reaching a point on his life, where he was able to return to their farm, rebuild it using the gains he was able to achieve because of that farm and then showing it to others that there is indeed a better way to do farming. He was able to share his education to his neighbors who were not as fortunate as he is and that is what our young generation called today as “lodi petmalu”.
But how about me? I am not as successful as he is today. I own no farm. I have no money to buy me a farm. I even bought a subdivided lot in an area that is used to be a farm. I am now facing the sad truth that I am also part of the downfall of the farming industry in our locality. And I cannot think of a feasible way on how to undo it now.
We also visited “Nonongs Farm”, the one owned by Mr. Paulino Villacorta. His farm is bigger than that of Sergio’s farm but is less interesting. His kind of farm is the source of the food we have on our table. The harvest is abundant due to the use of pesticides. The type of soil is not what we expect to see in a farm and I am afraid that it has slowly turned acidic. Time will come that it will no longer bear big harvest just like we have in our locality.
The food we eat in our table can be poisoning us slowly but most of us are not doing something about it. (At least the great engineer is a step ahead of us.) What we care more is profit. Money has become an important element and as what the kind engineer has told us, we cannot eat money when there is war or crisis at home. We need to have our own source of food supply for stability and emergency. We also need to take care each other and making the organic produced fruits and vegetables available to everyone at an affordable price is one way of showing of our affection towards our kind.
If given the opportunity to get into farming or when someday when I retire, I will try to support organic farming just like Eng. Revalde. I agree that the soil needs to heal, and the plants should live their normal life cycle. Crops should not be forced to bear fruits. Let the plant live on its normal environment. Let the ecosystem roll on its own or at least minimize any intervention giving-up space and by respecting their appropriated zones. Preserving mother nature is also a way of prolonging our life. We all love our life and so we should take care our natural environment.
I realized that the best crops in our locality are coconut and bananas. Our soil is not ready for other crops yet. Less maintenance is required in coconut and banana plantation. The old farmers can easily manage them. I also think that the government has realized this already. Proof to that is the free banana and coconut seedlings provided by the local government to our community. But the propagation of these plants will take time. Bananas are frown to damage during typhoons but can easily recover after a year. Aside from the cruelty of super typhoons, coconuts are also used as lumbers and there are only few of them left standing. As of now, I failed to notice the impact of that project. Hopefully one of these days or in the future I can see its success.
But I would be very happy to convert some idle lands into a flower farm. My late grandfather may not like the idea because he would insist that flowers are not edible. That we should have planted vegetables and fruit trees instead of those lovely flowers we tended daily. He used to criticize my aunt for growing flowers on her backyard. For him, it was a waste of time and effort. But then flowering plants are now edible, and he would be surprised on how big the market there is for salads. The problem is the capital. I may need to work hard to financially support such endeavors. I also need to educate myself with soil preservation and buy sacks of soil from Eng. Revalde.
My grandfather while on his deathbed has called upon my father and my uncle for his final wish. My father and my uncle has been wondering what could have been his final words. They were both thinking that it was all about some hidden treasures that my grandfather was able to save somewhere. There is a big possibility for that since my grandfather has a lot of adventures to tell proving that he is indeed a wanderer during his time. Papa and uncle are all smiles when they try to take their ears towards my grandfather’s mouth, excited to hear his final message. To their disappointment, they were both instructed to plant coconut trees. My grandfather enumerated to them the step by step process of how to plant a coconut tree. He particularly told them the don’ts during planting. As embedded in our culture, the words of a dying man should be followed, thus they both end up planting coconut trees on their own backyard.
Romans 8:18 (NIV)
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
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